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Was (Not Was) is an American band founded in 1979 in Detroit, Michigan, by David Weiss and Don Fagenson, who adopted the stage names David Was and Don Was.<ref name="Larkin80">Template:Cite book</ref> Their song catalog features an eclectic mix of pop and rock styles, often featuring guest musicians from across the musical spectrum. The band's most popular period was during the 1980s and early 1990s, with their highest-charting hit, the song "Walk the Dinosaur", released in 1987 as the lead single from their 1988 album What Up, Dog?, becoming a worldwide top-40 hit and peaking at Template:Numero on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The band went on indefinite hiatus in the mid-1990s, but has returned sporadically since the turn of the millennium. Their most recent release was the 2008 album Boo!.
CareerEdit
BeginningsEdit
Weiss and Fagenson were childhood friends who grew up together in suburban Detroit, Michigan, United States.<ref name="Larkin80"/> Partly due to Fagenson's poverty they decided to form Was (Not Was) in 1979.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The name of the band was derived from Fagenson's then-infant son Tony, who was just beginning to talk and enjoyed contradicting words such as "Blue" with "Not Blue". Their first recording was "Wheel Me Out", a 12-inch dance record for the avant-garde ZE Records. David's mother Elizabeth Elkin Weiss, an actress and radio pioneer in their native Detroit, provided the outré vocals. The track was later included on the 2000 compilation album Disco Not Disco.
Their first album Was (Not Was) (1981) was an amalgam of rock, disco, Weiss's beat poetry, Reagan-era political-social commentary, and jazz.<ref name="Larkin80"/> On vocals they recruited Harry Bowens and "Sweet Pea" Atkinson, who frequently found themselves singing absurdist and satirical songs alongside tender ballads.<ref name="Larkin80"/> Wayne Kramer of MC5, The Knack's Doug Fieger, and trumpeter Marcus Belgrave were among the guest players.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1982, the group played on Don't Walk Away, a solo album for lead singer "Sweet Pea" Atkinson.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
DevelopmentEdit
Born to Laugh at Tornadoes (1983)<ref name="Larkin80"/> had even more guest musicians, including Ozzy Osbourne rapping over electro, Mitch Ryder singing a techno-rockabilly number, Mel Tormé performing a ballad about asphyxiation, and an abstract funk piece called "Man vs. the Empire Brain Building". Singer Donald Ray Mitchell joined the group as third lead vocalist.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1988, they found their biggest hit with the album What Up, Dog?, which featured the singles "Walk the Dinosaur"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and "Spy in the House of Love".<ref name="Larkin80"/> Special guests included Stevie Salas, John Patitucci, Frank Sinatra Jr., and a writing credit from Elvis Costello.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Film and animation workEdit
Artist/animator Christoph Simon<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> created videos to accompany some of their stranger album tracks, such as "What Up, Dog?",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "Dad I'm in Jail,"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Tom Waits-style "Earth to Doris."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The videos appeared on MTV's Liquid Television and in various film festivals, including the Spike & Mike festival. Around this time, the Was Brothers developed separate careers as producers, film scorers, and music supervisors.
HiatusEdit
The group followed up with Are You Okay? in 1990,<ref name="Larkin80"/> spearheaded by a cover of "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone". Guest musicians included Iggy Pop, Leonard Cohen, The Roches, and Syd Straw. After a tour with Dire Straits in 1992 and a UK Top 5 single with "Shake Your Head", which included vocals from Ozzy Osbourne and actress Kim Basinger, Weiss and Fagenson drifted apart, subsequently releasing only a compilation album Hello Dad... I'm in Jail.<ref name="Larkin80"/> Some members, however, did appear on Don's Orquestra Was project Forever Is a Long Long Time (1997), which re-interpreted Hank Williams in a jazz/R&B vein.
ReunionEdit
In late 2004, Was (Not Was) reformed for a two-month club tour through the US, including stops at the House of Blues in Cleveland and Chicago and the Trocadero in Philadelphia. In October 2005, they played four gigs at the Jazz Café in London.
In 2008, they released their fifth studio album, Boo!, featuring guest appearances from Kris Kristofferson, Wayne Kramer, Marcus Miller and Booker T. Jones, plus a song originally co-written with Bob Dylan nearly 20 years earlier. On April 22, they performed on the British show Later... with Jools Holland, and on May 2, they were the musical guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The band toured the US that year, beginning on April 30.
CommentaryEdit
Writing in Detroit's Metro Times, Brian J. Bowe described the band as "an endearing mess....a sausage factory of funk, rock, jazz and electronic dance music, all providing a boogie-down backdrop for a radical (and witty) political message of unbridled personal freedom and skepticism of authority."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
DiscographyEdit
Template:Infobox artist discography
Studio albumsEdit
| Year | Information | Chart positions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 1981 | Was (Not Was)
|
– | – | – | – | – | ||
| 1983 | Born to Laugh at Tornadoes
|
134 | – | – | – | – | ||
| 1988 | What Up, Dog?
|
43 | – | 57 | 41 | 47 | ||
| 1990 | Are You Okay?
|
99 | 107 | 82 | 34 | 35 | ||
| 2008 | Boo!
|
– | – | – | – | – | ||
| "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||
Compilation albumsEdit
| Year | Information |
|---|---|
| 1984 | The Woodwork Squeaks
|
| 1989 | New Steak Trend
|
| 1992 | Hello Dad... I'm in Jail
|
| 2004 | The Collection
|
| 2010 | Hey, King Kong!!!: Pick of the Litter 1980-2010
|
SinglesEdit
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot 100 <ref name=AMG/> |
US Club Play <ref name=AMG/> |
US R&B <ref name=AMG/> |
AUS <ref name="AUS">Peaks in Australia:
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| 1980 | "Wheel Me Out" | – | 34 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | Mutant Disco: A Subtle Discolation of the Norm | ||
| 1981 | "Out Come the Freaks" | – | 16 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | Was (Not Was) | ||
| "Where Did Your Heart Go?" | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | - | – | ||||
| 1982 | "Tell Me That I'm Dreaming" | – | 3 | 68 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |||
| 1983 | "Smile" | 106 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | Born to Laugh at Tornadoes | ||
| "Knocked Down, Made Small (Treated Like a Rubber Ball)" | 109 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 1984 | "(Return to the Valley of) Out Come the Freaks" | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 41 | – | – | |||
| 1986 | "Robot Girl" | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 95 | – | – | What Up, Dog? | ||
| 1987 | "Spy in the House of Love" | 16 | 1 | 77 | 79 | – | 16 | 41 | 51 | – | – | |||
| "Walk the Dinosaur" | 7 | 11 | – | 9 | 11 | 10 | 16 | 10 | 10 | 49 | ||||
| "Boy's Gone Crazy" | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 84 | – | – | ||||
| 1988 | "Spy in the House of Love" (re-issue) | – | – | – | 90 | 13 | – | – | 21 | 26 | – | |||
| "Out Come the Freaks (Again)" | – | – | – | – | – | 86 | – | 44 | – | – | ||||
| "Anything Can Happen" | 75 | 19 | – | – | – | – | – | 67 | – | – | ||||
| 1990 | "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" | – | 10 | 60 | 75 | 11 | 14 | 22 | 12 | – | – | Are You Okay? | ||
| "How the Heart Behaves" | – | 35 | – | – | – | – | – | 53 | – | – | ||||
| "I Feel Better Than James Brown" | – | – | – | 163 | – | – | – | 91 | – | – | ||||
| 1992 | "Listen Like Thieves" | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 58 | – | – | Hello Dad...I'm in Jail | ||
| "Shake Your Head" | – | – | – | 47 | 8 | – | – | 4 | – | – | ||||
| "Somewhere in America (There's a Street Named after My Dad)" | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 57 | – | – | ||||
| "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||||
ContributionsEdit
- A Christmas Record (1981, ZE Records) - "Christmas Time in the Motor City"
- That's the Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk (1984, A&M Records) - "Ba-Lue-Bolivar-Ba-Lues-Are"
- Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988, A&M Records) - "Baby Mine"
See alsoEdit
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- World Wide Was
- Was (Not Was) collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
- {{#if:Was (Not Was)|Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs|{{#if:Template:Wikidata|Template:Wikidata Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at DiscogsTemplate:EditAtWikidata|Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs}}}}
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